What are you eating from your garden in December

[Tocsin]

Still got a few leeks, they're not very big, grew them too close to parsnips last year and they were overshadowed. Onions stored in the shed (potatoes ran out in November), Parnips and sweetcorn in the freezer.
Jams: Bramble and apple, rhubarb and ginger, raspberry, strawberry.
Still got a few jars of beetroot left.
Wine: Rhubarb, Parsnip, Turnip, Peapod (still clearing), bramble, lavender, elderberry & apple.
Just ordered up most of this year's seed from The Real Seed Company.
Kept potatoes back for seed for this year.

[featherstick]

Two-do

That's a fascinating couple of links you have posted, thank you. INteresting to find you have had simialr with Crown Prince.

I'd answer this question though "Also, and this is an important point, why should an amateur grower care if the veggies breed true? " by saying "so I can eat them"....As well as the Crown Prince, I had a crossed butternut x something else - it was butternut shaped, DPM coloured, and a soft, spongy unviable flesh.

In any event, we are clearly on the same page about the importance of saving our own seed and developing suitable local varieties, I will follow those links with interest. What do you mean by "Rouge them strictly"?

[TwoDo]

What do you mean by "Rouge them strictly"?

Sorry, that's a typo I meant "rogue". As in removing any that are not true to type.

I'd answer this question though "Also, and this is an important point, why should an amateur grower care if the veggies breed true? " by saying "so I can eat them"....As well as the Crown Prince, I had a crossed butternut x something else - it was butternut shaped, DPM coloured, and a soft, spongy unviable flesh.

That can happen and it can be disconcerting when it occurs to a type of plant you have relatively few of (like squash). Random off type hybrids are less of a worry when you have a lot of a plant - carrots or peas etc. In that case one plant going inedible really doesn't make that much difference. Much of the time though, the off type varieties are perfectly edible just inconsistently shaped or coloured. This would render them unsalable to a commercial grower and hence they insist on seeds that breed true to type. It was with this in mind that I made the statement about it "not mattering" that much.

Most vegetable varieties are incredibly inbred (especially heirloom varieties) and have very restricted gene pools. The mixing of varieties together to form new ones can impart a lot of vigour to the offspring. This is known as "hybrid vigour" but as Lofthouse states it really isn't "hybrid vigour" it's really just "vigour" and the plants would normally have it anyways if their seeds hadn't been through so many genetic bottlenecks.

Like most things, it's a tradeoff....